The present invention relates, in general, to a dispenser for tape cassettes. More particularly, this invention relates to a cassette dispenser for housing a plurality of tape cassettes all of which can be locked in position and are individually selectively key releasable from the dispenser.
A variety of cassette cabinets and dispensers have appeared on the market in recent years as a result of the very substantial commercial acceptance of cassettes in the music industry. However, all have certain disadvantages. For example, those dispensers which are key operated have complex, multipart mechanisms that are expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble. In addition, many are quite large for their limited capacity.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved dispenser for tape cassettes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tape cassette dispenser that permits compact arrangement for the cassettes.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a cassette dispenser that preferably has a unitary key release structure and that is relatively simple in design and can be fabricated in a single operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cassette dispenser that is very easy to assemble.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a cassette dispenser having a plurality of release keys for selectively releasing the cassettes for use and wherein each key also functions as a lock for maintaining the cassette in the dispenser when the key is not actuated.